Happy Birthday
by hexterah
Summary: So what exactly do the little boys in Rapture think when their friends vanish and are seen again later under the watchful eye of a Big Daddy? This is the story of the parents of a curious little boy. One-poster/short story. Written: 02/01/08


**Author's Note: **Another Bioshock story featuring more original characters. I don't remember exactly where the idea for this one came from, but I think it had something to do with the conversation between Fontaine and Tenenbaum about how the procedure could only be performed on girls – so what did the little boys think? Written: 02/01/2008.

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**Happy Birthday**

Bobby had been growing distant during the couple of weeks leading up to his death. His parents noticed it instantly.

Bruce tried to take him out to the plaza to play catch, but the boy just stood there and held out his hands, the ball flying over his head without him even making a move to retrieve it. Lois just hid in her room and cried and when speaking to Bobby, trying to keep the tears and shakiness from her voice.

She broke a plate one night after dinner when carrying it into the kitchen from the dining room. Bobby had been standing there behind her when she turned, staring up to his mother, his face whiter than she had ever seen it, eyes glazed over and mouth hanging open. The look on his face caused her to drop the plate on her feet, the pieces cutting through her stockings and scratching her skin.

"I wanna play with Joyce again, Mommy."

It was all he had said for weeks.

He had followed Lois into the bathroom, repeating this phrase while she took off her stockings and washed her feet in the bathtub. Bruce had found them there when he returned home from work. His wife was seated on the edge of the tub in a wrinkled green dress, her feet soaking in a pool of dark pink water. Bobby was standing beside her, his head in Lois' hands, clutched against her chest. Bruce could hear her crying.

Leaning down, he grabbed Bobby and led him away from the bathroom and into his small bedroom. He quickly helped his son change into his nightclothes and tucked him into bed, planting a quick kiss on his forehead before rushing back to the bathroom. He pulled Lois up and away from the tub. She stood up on scratched feet and fell into his arms, burying her head into his work clothes.

"Bruce, what have we done wrong?"

He could only hush her and gently rock her back and forth. He had no answers for her. He wished he did, but there were none. Right now he could only hope to keep her hysterics from reaching Bobby.

"What did we do to deserve this!?"

"Shhh, Lois, we didn't do anything."

His eyes always comforted her and she had looked up into them to try to regain her composure. They were brown and rich and they always reminded her of chocolate. Bobby had Bruce's eyes. They widened a little when he leaned close to her and whispered something Lois hadn't really had much thought about.

"We could be in the Ragland's shoes right now..."

The Raglands were Joyce's parents. Sophia and Clarence. They lived next door.

Their daughter had been taken away about a month and a half earlier and put in with the Little Wonders program. The Ragland's worried about her day in and day out, but were assured their daughter was getting superb care and an amazing education.

They saw her harvesting ADAM one day in Arcadia, a couple weeks after she was taken; her gray skin and glowing eyes matched the metal and sensors of the Big Daddy guarding her. Her little yellow dress was the one Clarence had purchased for her to wear at her ninth birthday party. She was happily talking to her knight in dull and rusted armor about all things ranging from tea parties to ham to angels. Clarence could only stop and stare. Sophia had fainted and collapsed into a smattering of bushes beside the spot where they were standing.

Sophia killed herself later that night.

She had dived into the water around one of the bathyspheres and attempted to swim back to the surface -- where "things like this just don't happen!" -- she had screamed before she went, with only a deep breath and a prayer. She didn't make it far. One of the Big Daddies had to retrieve her body, which had caught on some pipes out in the water near Fleet Hall.

Lois nodded quickly, recalling the Ragland's current state. Sophia was dead, Joyce was gone to them and Clarence seemed like he was slowly going crazy. She had felt so horrible for the family. Joyce had been to their place many times to play with Bobby. They would play checkers (and not correctly, either -- which always amused the adults), they would play tag and hide and seek. Lois figured the two would end up getting married once they got older -- she and Sophia would always joke about things like that.

"I just wish we could get him to stop acting like this, Bruce."

"I know, I know. It'll just take time."

She didn't speak up, but some instinct inside her told her time was something they didn't have down here in Rapture. Especially not with everything on the slow downward spiral that it seemed to be taking within the previous few months.

The day after the episode with the plate, the three of them headed to the Farmer's Market to pick up some food and other essentials. Lois had a few tomatoes in her left hand and a block of cheese in her right, while Bruce carried a large melon in his left and had the fingers of his right wrapped around Bobby's hand. They set their items up on the counter and debated on what meat to purchase for dinner that week.

"Bobbo, do you want hamburgers for dinner tonight?"

The boy had his head turned away from them and the meat counter.

"Bobby?"

He didn't look at Bruce. It didn't even look like Bobby had heard him.

"Bobby Lee Green, you listen to me when I'm talking to you." Bruce shook Bobby's hand.

He was supposed to be at Joyce's ninth birthday party that day, but after her quick and sudden installation into the army of Little Sisters Rapture was building, it was cancelled. They didn't tell Bobby what happened to her. They told him she was off living with some relatives somewhere in Apollo Square now.

Something -- the first thing in weeks -- had caught the boy's eye. He pulled out of his father's grasp and stumbled away from his parents, flying towards a familiar face across the market, screaming something happily as he ran.

"Joyce!"

It was the first time his parents had seen color in his face for weeks.

He was beaming as he ran. Lois realized at that moment in time that her child looked more beautiful and alive than he ever had before.

He was bounding across the market to Joyce. Bruce was running after him. Lois could only stand at the meat counter clutching the edge of it. Her fingernails were digging into the wood ahead of her and her legs were shaking, threatening to give out. Her eyes followed Bruce, who was chasing Bobby and dodging citizens and shoppers standing in his way. She couldn't see Bobby anymore but she could definitely see the big hunk of deathly metal he was running towards and she could see the back of Bruce's head -- then the crowd closed around him and blocked her view. She heard her husband's voice though.

"Bobby, no!"

"Happy birthday, Joyce!" Bobby had thrown his arms out, ready to wrap his friend up in a huge hug.

Bruce was on his heels and was only feet behind him when the Big Daddy beside Joyce pulled his hand back and slammed it into the side of Bobby's face. The boy flew backwards and landed in a small clearing roughly ten feet away. A red light settled over his small body as the Big Daddy hovered over him and studied him for a moment. The threat to the Little Sister was dead. His neck was broken.

Shopkeepers and other citizens had grabbed onto Bruce and held him back without him even realizing he had stopped moving towards his son. He watched as the light cast over the boy shifted from red to yellow -- a brighter color that gave Bobby a sort of golden halo as he laid there frozen on the ground. Bruce was telling himself over and over that Bobby wasn't dead, but his fears were most definitely proven true when Joyce, the Little Sister, skipped over to him and studied him momentarily.

There was a hesitation in those big sad eyes of hers, but it quickly passed as she took the tool in her hand and reared it back, jamming the needle into Bobby's midsection.

Bruce clenched his eyes shut and turned away, writhing into the crowd of people behind him. He could hear sympathies coming from all sides, surrounding him. He could hear other people crying around him at what they had just witnessed. Hands were brushing his shoulders and his arms and fingers in support. Lois stumbled through them all and grabbed onto Bruce's hands. She hadn't seen what happened, but she had most definitely heard it. The silence of the crowd that separated her from the scene was enough to let her witness it all through her ears -- Joyce's tiny voice, Bobby's footsteps, the mechanical shudder and squeak of the monster's arm and then the wet smash as it pummeled into Bobby. She heard Bruce cry out, she heard the crowd get louder and that was when she knew her boy had died.

Lois and Bruce clung to each other as the people around them led them back into the main market area, some stood around and talked about what just happened, a few others went about their business, some even whispered about rebellion -- but a choice few stuck beside the Green's as they were led to a bench beside the fruit stand. Bruce nodded when one of the keepers asked if they wanted glasses of water, Lois cried into a handkerchief a woman had handed her, but both seemed to be lost in their own minds -- both wondering what they could've done differently.

The Big Daddy that was leading Joyce was walking through the crowd with her galloping merrily behind him. The people parted for the two as they headed towards the other side of the Farmer's Market, and as they meandered by the bench Bruce and Lois were seated on, Bruce just watched the robotic beast pass, a look of anger now permanently pasted on his face. Lois didn't look at her son's murderer -- she watched Joyce, tears filling her own eyes at the girl's oblivious nature.

"Happy birthday..." she whispered quietly before she fell into another round of sobs and dropped her head on her husband's shoulder.


End file.
